Land Rover Sydney GC Race - Wide sailing proving a valuable tactic

by Di Pearson on 27 Jul 2015 Three yachts racing in the 2015 Land Rover Sydney Gold Coast Yacht Race took a big gamble and went quite some distance offshore looking for strong breeze yesterday and this morning that decision is paying dividends for two of them.

Peter Mosely’s BH36, Local Hero, is leading the race overall from Peter Harburg’s Queensland entry, Black Jack, which finished second on line last evening. Darryl Hodgkinson’s canting Cookson 50, Victoire, the Division O winner in 2013, has moved up to third place overall.

“I’m not aboard – Matt Bassett is skippering. This morning everyone was asking me ‘why have they gone so far offshore – are they headed to New Zealand?’ So it was a nice surprise to find them in the lead this morning. It’s the luck of the draw really,” Peter Mosely said from home in Sydney.

“I’ve been in this position before, and there’s still 120 miles to sail, so I’m not getting too excited yet. Matt, who crewed for Bob Steel when he won the 2008 Sydney Hobart, is doing a great job – so are the crew,” Mosely ended.

Stampede, Michael McDonald and Jon Lattimore’s yacht, also took a big dig out to sea yesterday and is dicing for the PHS lead with Les Goodridge’s Wax Lyrical. McDonald and Lattimore are experiencing their first Gold Coast race with their Inglis 39, which last competed in the race in 2011.

This morning the remaining 59 yachts in the fleet are sailing along in more pleasant conditions than those of yesterday. Tony Kirby reported from his Ker 46, Patrice: “We’re in a lovely 18 knot south-westerly doing 12 knots and it’s a beautiful morning. Hopefully we’re catching the guys that choofed off on us last night.”

Patrice is doing a good job, moving back up into fourth place overall. “We’re coming home fast (they have 50nm to go) and I hope the promised southerly arrives in time for us to throw up a kite to finish early tomorrow,” he said.

“It’s been quite a challenging race – a lot of sail changes – the crew has done a fantastic job. But how was our start?” Kirby was referring to his 46 footer leading the fleet to Sydney Heads on Saturday, holding off both Perpetual Loyal and Black Jack.

This morning others told of yesterday’s struggles.

Wild Rose’s navigator Jen Wells says yesterday’s news is vastly different to the current situation. “It was obviously a very frustrating day for most of the fleet. At one stage all the boats around us on AIS (the live shipping marine website) were shown as heading home because of the current starting to bite and push us backwards,” she said.

“The tide caught a number of us, as it hit quite quickly with a drop in wind speed.”

“What do we do in those conditions? We rarely take our minds off the race. In some ways, our crew works even harder than in fresh conditions, as we make so many sail changes that no one bothers to try to count them.

“Of course we have a laugh too - and usually it’s about other sailing memories and stories – most of which have been told many times before. Eating and drinking tea and coffee are a big distraction – or eating chocolate - and we are running low on chocolate – but of course nobody has had more than two pieces!

”Lucky there’s enough coffee on board to get us to New Guinea, so we won’t have caffeine and chocolate withdrawal before we get to Southport,” Wells said.

Last night, Ichi Ban’s navigator, Will Oxley, echoed Wells’ sentiment. “It was a slow day. We have had Smokey Cape in sight all day! Another tricky transition ahead as night falls, then hopefully some good reaching conditions tonight should see a mid to late morning finish for us,” he said.

The Land Rover Sydney Gold Coast Yacht Race is the first race of the CYCA’s Blue Water Pointscore series. Last year, Sam Haynes won both with his Rogers 46, Celestial. This year, Haynes is racing the former Fomo, a TP52 he has renamed Celestial. The former Celestial is racing as The Goat under Bruce Foye and Sebastian Bohm.

Family, friends and enthusiasts can follow the race and their favourite yachts via the CYCA’s proven yacht tacker on the official race website.

For all information on the Land Rover Sydney Gold Coast Yacht Race, visit website.